City of Basketball Love

Ryan Brennan (@ryan_brennan63)
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Duane Satchell had a goal when he transferred to Valley Forge Military Academy this year: to make state playoffs.

The year had not gone as planned for Satchell, who has only appeared in 11 games due to an academic suspension earlier in the season after playing at West Catholic last season.

“He came here for the structure, he came here for the academics and he struggled early with the academics and that’s part of the reason he wasn’t on the floor,” Trojans’ head coach Francis Bowe said. “He’s busted his butt ever since he got his first low grades here, and we’re proud of him.”

The 6-foot-8 sophomore forward did his part and more for the Trojans Wednesday night, scoring a team-high 18 points and adding 13 rebounds in the team’s 56-25 win over Pine Grove in their District 1/11 3A semifinal game.

The sophomore forward was able to take advantage of his opportunity and provide a much-needed spark off the bench for the Trojans (21-6), who were without reserve center Marius Ntwari due to an ankle injury and got a poor first-half shooting performance from leading scorer Arion Lewis.

Lewis, who played with an ankle injury for much of the half, converted only one of his eight field goal attempts allowing players like Satchell, junior Rye Ahronson (seven points) and senior Will Colleran (nine points) to step up in his place, combining to score 18 of the Trojans’ 24 first half points for a 24-8 lead at the break.  

“When players are struggling people step up and it helps the team a lot when you have other options on offense,” Lewis said.

Satchell was a monster on the glass during the half, collecting eight rebounds and finishing four field goal attempts off offensive boards.

“People ask ‘where was he?’ well, he was always here. but he had to find himself and get used to this culture,” Bowe said, “Valley Forge can be a culture shock and now you can tell he has a groove about him.”

During the second half, Lewis was able to find his shooting touch, scoring nine points including five of the team’s first seven allowing the Trojans to build a 40-18 lead heading into the fourth.

Satchell continued his surprising performance in the second half converting four of his five field goal attempts and added another five rebounds giving him game-highs in both points and boards.

“It feels good coming back from being ineligible I had to help my team and step up tonight and do everything the best I can,” said Satchell, who added that he was grateful for the opportunity to play at VFMA and compete in state playoffs.

Although he wasn’t much a factor on the offensive end of the floor senior Abraham Deng was a force defensively, compiling ten rebounds and altering shot attempt after shot attempt.

Hustle played a huge part in the Trojans’ win garnering praise from Bowe.

“In districts and states you have to hustle every single second if you don’t you can be knocked off. That’s why they call it survive and advance. I’m proud of the way we played after about a 2 week lay-off. At the end of the day I didn’t see an issue with effort and that’s the most important thing tonight for us.”

With the win the Trojans advance to their second straight District 1/11 3A title game after winning the title last season. The Trojans also qualified for their second straight PIAA 3A state playoff appearance when they lost to Del-Val Charter last season in the state quarterfinals.

Experience will play a key role if VFMA wants to accomplish these feats again this season.

“It’s huge when you have three seniors talking to the younger guys and the newer guys about the experience and how you have to work hard, and I thought the seniors did a good job preparing these guys for this moment,” said Bowe, who was thrilled with his team’s performance.

The Trojans, behind senior leadership of Lewis, Deng and Colleran, will look to build off of Wednesday night’s performance when they take on Catasauqua for the district title Saturday.

“Experience helps us,” Lewis said. “We’ve been here before so we know what it takes to get to where we need to go.”